The present invention relates to agricultural pneumatic seeding equipment and, more particularly, to apparatus for distributing materials such as seeds and fertilizers from a number of separate bulk supply tanks into pneumatic conveying lines that deliver the materials to a multitude of remotely located ground-engaging openers that deposit the seed and/or other materials into the ground as the machine is advanced. More especially, the present invention is directed to an improved collector assembly beneath each product supply tank wherein products from the different tanks are easily combined into one primary stream or delivered separately to their points of delivery.
It is known in the art of air seeding to provide large, high-capacity carts that are towed by a tractor along with an implement having a multitude of ground engaging openers that deposit seeds and/or fertilizers into the soil from separate bulk supply tanks on the cart. Collector assemblies have been used below the tanks to introduce streams of materials gravitating from the tanks into pneumatic conveying lines that deliver the materials to their ultimate destinations. Such collector assemblies have heretofore comprised a generally hollow body or manifold type structure that is subdivided into a generally horizontally extending series of compartments through which individual air streams pass to define loading zones in the compartments. Metered materials from the overhead tank drop into the air streams at the loading zones and are transported thereby to the openers.
It is also known in the art to utilize diverter valves in association with the pneumatic conveying streams to selectively divert materials from one tank into the streams of materials from another tank. In the case of seeds in one tank and fertilizer in another, combining the streams in this manner is known in the art as a xe2x80x9csingle shootxe2x80x9d operation. When the materials are delivered in separate conveying lines and delivered to different points on the ground-engaging opener, this is typically referred to as a xe2x80x9cdouble shootxe2x80x9d operation.
The present invention is directed to an improved collector assembly below each tank that provides significantly enhanced double shoot or single shoot operations, among other distinct advantages. In one preferred form of the invention, the improved collector assembly comprises a generally hollow body having a number of horizontally spaced, vertical passages therein that receive materials from metering mechanism associated with an overhead supply tank. The upright passages are segregated from one another by upright partitions in the body, and each passage has an upper loading zone that is intersected by a conveying air stream passing transversely through the passage. In addition, each passage has a lower loading zone that is intersected by a lower conveying air stream passing transversely through the passage. A diverter valve located just above the upper loading zone can be positioned in a number of alternative positions within the gravitational path of travel of materials in the passage so as to control the amount of materials that are directed into the upper loading zone verses the lower zone.
In one position of the diverter valve the upper loading zone can be completely closed so that the entire volume of materials moving through the passage gravitates to the lower loading zone to combine with materials from another tank that have already been introduced into the lower air stream. This provides a single shoot operation. At another extreme, the diverter valve can completely close the lower loading zone so that all materials from the overhead tank gravitate into the upper air stream, hence preparing the machine for double shoot operation. This arrangement provides a high degree of flexibility for the farmer as different tanks of the machine can be used at different times for different materials, and different pneumatic conveying lines can similarly be used at different times to convey different materials.
In one particularly preferred form of the invention, all of the diverter valves of a collector assembly are linked together by a common actuating rod so that they can all be shifted between their various adjusted positions simultaneously. Again, this greatly facilitates set up by the farmer and provides a way of obtaining uniform settings on all of the valves. Preferably, each collector assembly is comprised of a pair of separate collector modules that are stacked one on top of another to provide the desired passages through the assembly Additional modules may be provided to achieve additional flexibility such as for triple shoot operations, although each collector assembly may alternatively comprise a single composite body within which the necessary passages and valves are located.